diff --git a/src/cmd/go/vcs.go b/src/cmd/go/vcs.go
index 39881a6dc70..504b3bf5483 100644
--- a/src/cmd/go/vcs.go
+++ b/src/cmd/go/vcs.go
@@ -102,7 +102,7 @@ var vcsGit = &vcsCmd{
 		{"show-ref tags/{tag} origin/{tag}", `((?:tags|origin)/\S+)$`},
 	},
 	tagSyncCmd:     "checkout {tag}",
-	tagSyncDefault: "checkout origin/master",
+	tagSyncDefault: "checkout master",
 
 	scheme:  []string{"git", "https", "http", "git+ssh"},
 	pingCmd: "ls-remote {scheme}://{repo}",